Va. pol: 'Sodomy not a civil right'

Virginia delegate Robert Marshall, who led the effort to block an openly gay man from becoming a district judge, argued Thursday that a gay person on the bench could show bias when ruling in a case involving a gay and a straight person who got into a fight and he added that “sodomy is not a civil right.”

“You could preside as a district judge for a marriage of two guys if he wanted to, in violation of the law,” Marshall said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “Moreover, if you have a bar room fight between a homosexual and heterosexual, I’m concerned about possible bias.”

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The Virginia General Assembly voted against gay prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland’s bid to be a district court judge in Richmond early Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Marshall, a Republican who is running for Senate, had threatened to offer an amendment to try to block Thorne-Begland’s nomination if the state General Assembly didn’t vote to reject him, calling the prosecutor an “aggressive activist for the pro-homosexual agenda.”

In his interview with CNN Thursday, Marshall doubled down on his previous remarks, as he accused Thorne-Begland of having displayed a “pattern of behavior” that disqualified him to be a judge.

“I’ve been there 21 years. We’ve never appointed an activist of any kind along these lines, much less somebody who has a long history of this,” the legislator said.

Pressed by CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on how he couldn’t give a gay man a chance to be a judge in an age when black people are not forced to sit in the back of the bus and women can vote, Marshall shot back, “Sodomy is not a civil right.”

“Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office they broke,” he said. “Sodomy is not a civil right, and there’s an effort by homosexual lobbyists to equate the two. That’s wrong. It is a pattern of behavior.”

He added, “When I was in public school … we all said, ‘Keep us from temptation.’ This was because we said the Lord’s Prayer. Nobody, nobody — should go where they’ll be tempted. That includes me, that includes you, that includes you, that includes a prospective judge.”

Asked whether there will ever be a gay judge in Virginia, Marshall responded, “We probably have appointed homosexuals in the past,” but clarified that he hasn’t had to “face” a openly gay judge in his state in 21 years.

The office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said in a recent statement that the governor believes “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not acceptable in state government.”